Celebrate 30 years of the OA.
With original work from Imani Perry, Kristen Arnett, Diane Roberts, and so many others, our Spring Issue honors our past and looks into our expansive future.
Magazine
Issue 31, January / February 2000
“Nature and humankind, the two forces shape each other. This is not to say that humanity and nature are separate. There are still around us examples, stories of how two things can be both separate yet connected.” — Rick Bass, “A Fire That Never Goes Out”
Featuring A Painted House: Part One by John Grisham. Essay by Anthony Walton and fiction by Nicola Mason. Interviews with Toni Murden and John Howard. Poetry by Billy Collins and Michael Chitwood.
Other contributors include Vicki Covington, Barry Gifford, Diane Roberts, and more.
FEATURES
A PAINTED HOUSE, PART 1
The world of a seven-year-old boy growing up in the Arkansas Delta changes with the arrival of the new workers on his family’s cotton farm
by John Grisham
AN AMERICAN JOURNEY CONTINUES: REMARKS AT OLE MISS
Thirty-seven years after James Meredith integrated Ole Miss, a black writer addresses the university’s honor students
by Anthony Walton
THE BAD SEED: A GUIDE
A cautionary tale for women who always fall for the wrong men
a story by Nicola Mason
COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS
LOCAL FARE
THE WELCOME TABLE
Civil Rights heroine Georgia Gilmore brought Montgomery together through her cooking
by John T. Edge
SOUTHERN GALLERY
Q & A with Tori Murden
A Kentucky woman who rowed solo across the Atlantic speaks from Guadeloupe after landing
Q & A with John Howard
The author of Men Like That: A Southern Queer History discusses his work
SOJOURNS
THE LURE OF THE MERMAIDS
Florida’s original tourist attractions make the most of the state’s natural resources—women and water
by Diane Roberts
LOST CLASSICS
THE BLOND, THE GUN, THE HEIST
Resurrecting the 1953 pulp fiction masterpiece of Mississippian Elliott Chaze
by Barry Gifford
NATURAL HISTORY
A FIRE THAT NEVER GOES OUT
The unique history of a Mississippi ghost town is remembered
by Rick Bass
SOUTHERN MUSIC
SOUTH OF THE SOUTH
A documentary and dozens of new albums put Cuban music in the spotlight
by Tom Piazza
DEALER'S CHOICE
THE FAMILY OF MAN
We're all close kin to Klansmen and cannibals
by Hal Crowther
MEDITATIONS FOR BAD GIRLS
WOMEN I KISSED
by Vicki Covington
GONE OFF UP NORTH
TOE-TO-TOE WITH THE MARBLE MAN
by Roy Blount Jr.
COMICS
POETRY
REVIVAL
by Michael Chitwood
DEATH IN NEW ORLEANS, A ROMANCE
by Billy Collins
OTHER DEPARTMENTS
Cover photograph: “Black Oak, Arkansas. 1999.” by Adam Shemper